Recreation Services

Greetings!

It's our pleasure to have the opportunity to welcome you to the Buena Vista University Recreation Services website and extend to you an invitation to participate in the recreational opportunities offered through intramural and outdoor recreation programs. It is our hope to serve the BVU community (students, faculty, and staff) more effectively and efficiently through this website.

The intramural and outdoor adventure programs offer you opportunities to become involved, to meet people, to compete, and experience new activities while having fun. The program is your program, and its success will depend on you. Every effort will be made to secure a place for you whether you enjoy participation at the individual level, group level, recreational level, competitive level, or in differentiated experiences.

The Department of Recreation Services is a division of Student Affairs, located at 27 Peterson Drive, in a brick house along the lake front, behind the Siebens Fieldhouse Gymnasium and Finkbine Natatorium.

It is the goal of this organization to facilitate learning, self-discovery, leadership, teamwork, fun, health, skill development, and overall to assist and further the goals and purpose put forth in the BVU Mission Statement.

Your program here at Buena Vista University is a supplement to the educational, athletic, and health and wellness programs. Recreation Services' success is a reflection of the student body. Remember, athletic ability and skill is not important, only your willingness to participate!

About

The purpose of the Buena Vista University Recreation Services program is to compliment our academic, intercollegiate athletic, health, and wellness programs. It is also the intent of the program to offer a variety of healthy, alternative opportunities for the campus community. It provides resources and knowledge to the BVU community to support their engagement in all sorts of recreational activities.

Services

We assist our campus community in four distinct ways. First, we provide equipment free of charge for anyone to checkout and use. This includes rackets, sports balls, camping equipment, water sports equipment, and winter activity equipment. For a complete list of equipment available, you can check out our inventory online.

Mission

To provide the students, faculty and staff of Buena Vista University with quality recreational opportunities that meet their needs and desires.

Secondly, we offer educational workshops on a variety of outdoor topics. Topics include a myriad of activities, from kayaking and cross-country skiing to navigating the back-country and survival techniques.

Thirdly, we offer a rich variety of intramural sports designed to provide an opportunity for a multitude of competition levels and comfort styles. See our activities page for a list of activities that are typically offered over the year.

Finally, we offer trips to local and distant wilderness areas. These trips vary in duration, but typically are one to two days in length. They are also usually local, but longer trips tend to go to much more distant and exotic locales. These trips facilitate a deeper engagement and exploration of these different activities, yourself, and the outdoors.

Learning Objectives

The key objective of Recreation Services is to provide unlimited numbers of students, faculty and staff with varied, voluntary, constructive and satisfying leisure time outlets from which to choose.

Students participants in Recreation Services will develop physically, socially and mentally though a varied program of structured and unstructured recreation activities.

Student leaders will be able to enhance their leadership capabilities and guide participants in shaping their social and ethical values.

Students will develop positive attitudes toward recreational activity through being exposed to new experiences.

Students will develop new relationships or stronger relationships with individuals in the groups.